In the manufacturing of a microelectronic package (electronic cards), it is common practice to attach a component onto a printed circuit board or the like, for example by surface mounting utilizing a solder connection. For this purpose, the board features a circuit trace including a pad that constitutes a first surface for the connection; similarly, the component includes a second surface, for example a contact.
The interconnection method comprises the step of applying a solder alloy on the Cu substrate, typically onto the pad included in the printed circuit board.
The electronic components to be joined with the board are then brought into contact with the solder layer. The solder alloy is heated to cause the solder alloy to melt and reflow; heating may be by vapour phase reflow, infrared reflow, laser reflow, or the like. Upon cooling, the solder alloy resolidifies and bonds to the surfaces to complete the connection. The solder connection not only physically attaches the component to the board, but also electrically connects the trace on the board and the contact of the component to conduct electrical current to and from the component for processing. A flux is normally used to improve the solder alloy wettability with the pads of the board and the leads of the electronic components. The flux contains active chemicals, like organic acids and halide salts, that remove contaminants (e.g. copper oxyde, environmental and handling contaminants) from the pad and lead surfaces.
An inadequate cleaning of the electronic cards after soldering the components onto the substrate, can leave active flux residues, e.g. organic acids or inorganic halides on the copper circuits or connecting pads surface. These substances may be particularly harmful, because initially they are transparent and therefore not easily visible by the human eye. However, after several days of exposure to the atmosphere at room temperature and humidity, they can react with copper giving coloured carbonate, hydroxide, chloride or bromide salts, which are very difficult to remove. The presence of these copper salts on the circuits and the pads strongly affects the functionality of the electronic cards, because, when electric power is supplied, these salts can migrate and connect adjacent lines and pads creating short circuits. This effect is due to the salts being partially dissolved by water (which condenses from environmental humidity) and forming many electrolytic cells, whose electrodes are constituted by adjacent lines and pads; the electrolytic solutions is constituted by the ions of the salts solved in water. When electric power is supplied during the functioning of the card, an electrolysis process is induced inside every cell, with the movement of the positive (cations) and the negative (anions) ions of the salt toward respectively the cathode and the anode. A flow of electrons goes from the solution to the anode and, through the circuit, to the cathode causing the oxydation and the dissolution of the anode; at the same time on the cathode there is a deposition of metal, due to the release of electrons, coming from the anode, to the ions of the solution. This electrolysis process inside the cell causes an increase in the "size" of the cathode from the metal deposition, with a risk of line/pad bridging and a card failure due to short circuit.
The known techniques which use water based solution or organic solvents are not suitable for the removal of these contamination agent, because the copper salts are very slowly (and not always completely) soluble in water or in organic solvents.
On the other hand the use of stronger solvents such as ammonia or acid solutions would damage the materials of the boards and of the electronic components. Therefore these chemicals cannot be used for cleaning assembled electronic cards which always present corrodible materials e.g. copper, tin alloys, organic resins.
Furthermore ammonia and acid solvents in a water solution could not be used when two different materials having different electrochemical potentials are present on the electronic card. The reason is that this solution would induce plating phenomena on conductive surfaces, made of different material (e.g. copper and gold) having different electrochemical potentials (redox potential). When two metal surfaces having different redox potentials are connected with an electrolytic water solution (even without any electric power supply), a voltaic cell is formed with the production of an electromotive force which causes the dissolution of the metal with lower redox potential (e.g. copper) and its deposit on the metal surface with the higher redox potential (e.g. gold). These conditions may be found during the manufacturing of an electronic card, with a substrate having copper and gold surfaces, if the module was cleaned with a ionic water solution containing acid, ammonia and copper salts.
Therefore an improved treatment which removes the copper salts from the copper circuits and pads would be highly desirable.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a technique which alleviates the above drawbacks.